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USS Missouri: Last of the Breed

It’s getting late this evening, so I’ll keep it fairly brief…or at least I’ll try to.

When we discussed the sinking Japan’s humongous battleship Yamato (now approaching two years ago), we put it in a hypothetical shootout with the USS Iowa. Back then, I concluded that such a battle would have been won by the ship that landed the first blows with its main rifles (18″ on the Yamato, 16″ on the Iowa). I still hold to that.

And while the Yamato-class battleships were easily the largest and most powerful of their type ever produced (with displacements approaching those of an aircraft carrier and those massive 18″ guns), I think the ships of the Iowa-class actually demonstrate the highest refinement of the mark, with their advanced (for the 1940’s) radar and fire-control systems.

The Iowa-class dreadnoughts came out of somewhat conflicted thinking. The two preceding battleship classes (North Carolina and South Dakota) both tried to balance the need for bigger armament and protection while simultaneously remaining within the 35,000-ton limit imposed by the Treaty of London. As it turns out, the South Dakota’s, with their shortened length (which meant better armor protection) and more powerful engines, actually were pretty good ships, as we saw at Guadalcanal.

But by the time they were in the water, Japan had already withdrawn from the Treaty and word that her Navy was building much larger ships came floating across the Pacific. So an entirely new design was drafted, one which eschewed the Treaty requirements, and the Iowa-class battleships were born.

Six hulls would be laid down, and four would be completed. The Iowa, New Jersey, the Missouri, and the Wisconsin comprised BB-61 – 64 in the Navy’s registry. The Illinois and Kentucky (BB-65 & BB-66) were begun, but never finished. BB-65 was eventually sold for scrap and parts of BB-66 were used to repair the Missouri after she suffered a ship-to-ship collision. There was more-than-passing consideration for equipping the Iowa’s with 18″ main guns, and the U.S. Navy already had them in the inventory, ready to go. But the guns would have “upset the apple cart” of the design, requiring more weight, bigger engines, and most importantly, a wider body. Increased width meant the Iowa’s could not have used the U.S.-controlled Panama Canal, so the plan for 16″ rifles stayed. As it is, the Iowa’s fit through the Canal with a few feet to spare.

The Missouri was the last the of the Iowa’s to be launched, having done so on January 29, 1944. And of course, by this time the battleship had been overtaken by the aircraft carrier as the main instrument of force projection. So she had the dual honor of being the very last battleship launched.

But these ships would hang around for a long time. They served in Korea and in Vietnam. Then they were placed in reserve until the 1980’s, when President Ronald Reagan’s call for a 600-ship Navy brought them back online, largely as missile platforms. Both the Wisconsin and Missouri fired weapons in anger in the first Gulf War (the Iowa would likely have participated as well, but was damaged when a turret exploded).

As far as I can tell, the Iowa-class battleships are the longest-serving ships in U.S. history, fighting in various conflicts over nearly 50 years. These battlewagons only journeyed together as a “foursome” for a few hours on one occasion, but it was probably a site to behold, and someone was wise enough to snap a photo (shown above)…the four most powerful ships of their kind (and the last of their kind) gliding through the water. Their usefulness in the days of cruise missiles and carrier-centric fleet defense is long gone, but their beauty and grace will never be eclipsed.

3 Responses

I first saw this photo in Malcolm Muir’s book about the Iowa-class Battleships, and I really wanted to use it. But I’m very careful with books, and scanning it in would have required me opening the book flat and stressing the binding. I decided to search on the web for it before resorting to “drastic” measures, and found a good example at Wikipedia…